The present invention relates to a dryer having a door opening and closing apparatus which has a simple structure and allows accurate opening and closing operation of a door.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a flow path of a conventional dryer and FIG. 2 is a partially broken perspective view of the conventional dryer.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional dryer includes a case 2 which forms an external appearance of the dryer and provided with an opening formed in front thereof and through which laundries to be dried are put into the dryer, a drum 12 which is rotatably mounted inside the case 2 to accommodate the laundries to be dried and has opened front and rear portions for allowing air to pass therethrough, a heater 18 which is disposed inside the case 2 to heat the air sucked into the case 2, an intake duct 20 which guides the heated air passed through the heater 18 to the rear of the drum 12, an exhaust unit 22 which exhausts the air polluted by drying the laundries to the outside of the case 2, a blower fan (not shown) which is installed in the exhaust unit 22, and a motor (not shown) and a belt 40 which drive the drum 12 and the blow fan to be rotated. Further, a lifter 11 is mounted on an inner peripheral surface of the drum 12 to lift up and drop the laundries to be dried.
The exhaust unit 22 includes a lint duct 25 which receives the air from the drum 12 to filter foreign substances from the air by a filter 24 mounted therein, a fan housing 26 which communicates with the lint duct 25 and houses the blower fan and an exhaust duct 27 which communicates with the fan housing 26 at one end thereof and extends to the outside of the case 2 at the other end.
Operation of the conventional dryer having the above described structure is will be described. First, by operating the dryer after putting the laundries to be dried into the drum 12 and closing a door (not shown), the motor is driven to rotate the drum 12 and the blower fan and the heater 18 is operated together.
At this time, the laundries to be dried in the drum 12 are lifted up and dropped by the lifter 11 with the rotation of the drum 12. External air is sucked in the heater 18, heated to air with high temperature and low humidity and then supplied to the inside of the drum 12 through the intake duct 20.
The air with high temperature and low humidity supplied to the inside of the drum 12 is brought into direct contact with the laundries to dry the laundries and changed to air with low temperature and high humidity. While drying the laundries, the air is moved toward the front of the drum 12 and then discharged to the outside of the dryer through the exhaust unit 22.
In order to prevent the inside of the drum 12 is opened during the aforementioned operation, an opening and closing apparatus is installed between the door and the case 2.
Since the conventional door opening and closing apparatus has complex structure and requires a plurality of parts, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce time and cost taken to manufacture the dryer. Therefore, it is required to improve the door opening and closing apparatus.